While the British government struggled to control the rioters in London and elsewhere, Iranian officials – including President Ahmadinejad – didn’t just sit back and watch. They scoffed, sneered, lectured and jeered at the British, threatening to cut diplomatic ties over the crackdown on the rioters and called for Prime Minister Cameron to be tried for war crimes.

And so as Britain and the rest of the world looked on in horror at the riots, Iran watchers found themselves somewhat amused at statements coming from Iran. And contrary to previous thought, it wasn’t just the Iranian diplomats having a summer of fun at British expense.

Cameron called the looting and burning during the riots “criminality, pure and simple,” but Ahmadinejad recognized those on the streets as “the opposition” and called the police crackdown on the rioters “unacceptable.” (Syndigate.info)

“What kind of country treats its own people like that?” he asked. (BBC Monitoring)

The he answered his own question – Britain’s past colonialism and its present capitalism are to blame – and advised the British government:

“Finally, they should pay attention to the fact that the world has changed and it is no longer possible for some capitalist families through their names and titles to plunder other governments and nations and use other people as their slaves.” (BBC Monitoring)

He also sharply criticized the Western countries for being disingenuous and singled out the U.N. for failing to notice the “savageness” of the police crackdown during the riots. (Reuters)

“If one percent of the events that have happened in the West had happened in countries opposing the West, their [Westerners’] throats would have burst open [from screaming about it], but the question is: Why is the [U.N.] Security Council silent and not showing any reaction?” (BBC Monitoring)

Ahmadinejad was hinting in part at the widespread international condemnation of Iran’s crackdown on opposition protests in Tehran and elsewhere against fraud during the presidential elections of 2009.